


Reunion Under Twilight

by Team_Two_Cats



Series: Suikovember 2020 [13]
Category: Suikoden II, Suikoden Series (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Two_Cats/pseuds/Team_Two_Cats
Summary: Suikovember 2020 Day 29 Prompt: ReunionWorking as something of an explorer with Templeton and some of her other old friends, Pilika is a bit adrift after being dumped by her girlfriend, Yuzu. Now thirty, the past of the war seems a lot way away, but that doesn't mean it can't come knocking in the form of a person she once considered a sister. Nanami is on a mission of her own--to find Pilika and bring her back to Harmonia for a long promised reunion, but one that comes in the shadow of a tragic turn, that Jillia is dying. How will Nanami and Pilika react to seeing each other after so long, given the circumstances of their meeting?
Series: Suikovember 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019115
Kudos: 1





	Reunion Under Twilight

The sun is setting over the Twilight Forest and Pilika wipes the sweat from her eyes and sits on the edge of one of the large structures, letting her legs dangle over the side. She feels a twinge in her back from the day’s exertions—a reminder that she’s not as young as she used to be.

Behind her, the rest of the outfit is setting up camp. Doing so on top of one of the structures means not having to worry as much about monster attacks at night coming from the woods, and keeps them out of the runs in case the passage of night and day would open or close door or hallways, leaving them stranded. These old ruins could be treacherous.

Chaco flies overhead, then lands next to her. “You’re distancing again,” he says.

Pilika huffs and shoots a look over her shoulder at the others. Templeton, their presumed leader, is buried in his maps again. Pete is busy making food. And…Yuzu is standing nearby, chatting up Pete, face slightly flushed, smiling. Happy. Pilika looks away.

“I’m giving them _space_ ,” she says. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

“You want me to talk to her?”

Pilika shakes her head. “There’s nothing to say. We’re through. I hope she and Pete are very happy together.”

The words come out like a curse and she wishes she couldn’t taste the venom in them. Chaco puts a hand on her shoulder.

“It’ll get better,” he says.

Easy for him to say. Unless it was a map, Templeton’s eyes never wandered. They were united in their desire to travel, to see the world. Perfect boyfriends. Whereas Pilika…

“I wish people would stop saying that me,” she says. “People always leave. That’s the lesson. Always has been.”

“Hey, P—”

“I need to take a walk,” she says, and without another word she slides off the stone. Chaco cries out but Pilika easily bounces from ledge to ledge until she’s safely on the ground. Her body aches, but she’s thirty, not dead. She looks back to see Chaco shaking his head. Whatever.

She walks, reminding herself that it’s better than Harmonia. Better than that constant waiting that Jillia thinks will amount to something. And yeah, maybe a part of her has been hoping that, if she keeps looking, if they keep poking around, she’ll find—but it doesn’t matter. Really what she wants is a distraction. To feel something positive, for however brief a time. Yeah, it hurts now, but that’s pass. She just needs to find the next thing, the next…

She stops. Movement ahead, but not big enough to be a monster. Another adventurer? A scholar? They’ve run into Lorelai and Killey on their travels, but not for a while. Rumor was they had traveled across the sea in search of more recent Sindar ruins. Pilika’s hand goes to the sword at her waist. She steps through the dense plants in the direction of the plants, and sees a shadow enter one of the ruins.

She looks back toward where the rest of the outfit is still cooking, talking, eating. Smoke raises up from the cook fire. No way she can get lost. But they’d be furious if she went off investigating something dangerous on her. But then, she’s in no mood to wait, or to check it out with any of the others. Taking a breath, she moves after the shadow, this time drawing her sword, just in case.

The ruins of this structure don’t stretch very far. They empty out into an empty square, and any further passages are either hidden, blocked off, or never existed. At least, that’s what she and the others had discovered the previous day. So Pilika is confused at first when she comes into the square, lit only by the twilight filtering through the holes in the ceiling, and finds no one. Until there’s a voice from the shadows, and a woman emerges who makes Pilika’s blood freeze on the spot.

“Hey Pilika,” Nanami says.

\---

It’s weird at times, traveling with people you’ve known since you were small. The changes, the small ways people look different, they creep up on you. Hardly noticed, they blur the past so everything seems exactly as it was ten, twenty years ago. But this…Nanami smiles.

“You’ve grown,” she says.

“N-nanami?”

She nods. She’d always told herself she wouldn’t leave this off so long. That they’d all return some day, even through she knows that it probably wouldn’t happen. For Riou and Jowy it was always the next mountain, the next country, the next continent. But however far they traveled…they always dragged the past with them.

“Where have you been?” Pilika asks, and the raw pain there takes Nanami by surprise.

She lights a torch and gets a better look at the woman in front of her. “Kind of everywhere,” Nanami says. “Spent some time down in the Island Nations. Went through Zelant. We got stranded an entire year in a continent made entirely of ice. The penguins were cute, though.”

“Is Un—is, uh, is Jowy with you?” she asks, and Nanami feels the question like a blow.

“No,” she says. “Not because he didn’t want to be. It’s…it’s Jillia.”

Nanami watches as Pilika’s face clouds with emotion.

“She’s sick,” Nanami says. "Jowy and Riou are with her now but she wanted…you to be there with her. In the end.”

“He…came back? Like he said he would?” Pilika asks.

Nanami bites her lip. She remembers all the times she admonished Jowy to return. To visit. To say hi at least. But he never would, like Jillia was part of a chapter in his life he had closed the book on. A dark chapter, and one that he never wanted to revisit. He always said it didn’t matter. That Jillia would forget him. That Pilika was safer and better off in Harmonia. But Nanami always suspected that wasn’t the reason. And she’s ashamed now she didn’t try harder to make him be good to his word.

“Jillia got someone to track us down and deliver the message. He came as soon as he could.”

“So it wasn’t planned,” Pilika says. It’s not a question and Nanami doesn’t try to answer.

She looks away. Up at the ceiling, through which the deepening twilight still glows.

“Do you want to come back with me?” Nanami asks. She hadn’t guaranteed she’d bring her back, though Jillia had all but demanded it. Some things you couldn’t force, no matter how much you wanted them.

And then the air takes on an electric quality, and she turns, looking back toward the exit, to the hungry dark.

\---

A growl from the doorway makes them both turn. A twilight tiger stands there, teeth bared. Pilika shifts to a defensive posture as she gets her sword up. She steps between the tiger and Nanami, but the older woman moves beside her, the torch left on the floor.

“I’m forty, not dead,” she says.

Pilika smiles. Of course. She remembers Nanami when she was small, the woman who held her own with the men. Who treated her like a little sister. Who cared about her, and who looked ready to beat the shit out of Shu when he had used her as leverage in Muse.

The tiger lunges and the women spring apart, letting it land between them. Flanking it, they strike. Pilika channels all her feelings into the violence of the attack, trying to purge the sick hurt and, worse still, the hope that grows in her chest. At the idea of seeing Jowy again, even if…it means Jillia’s death.

The tiger turns to her and lashes out with a mighty paw. Pilika tries to dodge but she’s too close, allowed her anger to distract her form keeping more distance. She cringes, waiting for the claws to catch, but at the last moment Nanami is there, bashing the tiger directly in the side of the face. It’s eyes cross, then close, and the tiger falls crumpled to the floor.

“You okay?” Nanami asks.

Pilika isn’t sure, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the tiger. She nods.

“I just…it’s a lot,” she says.

“I know,” Nanami says. “Look, you don’t have to decide today.”

“No, it’s not that,” Pilika says. The minute Nanami asked, she knew that she wanted to go. She just didn’t expect the anger. The hurt. The seething resentment that after so long, Jowy had returned for Jillia. Not for her. Not for his own daughter. If she was dying instead, would it be different? Would she be suddenly so wanted?

And then she looks at Nanami and see the same kind woman who helped her when she was young. Who fought for her. Who refused to fight if it meant children would be used as weapons. She sees the wrinkles around her eyes. Knows that for all her own back aches, Nanami’s probably does more. Shit. When did time catch up to them and make them…older? And like that some of the anger fades.

“I should tell them that I’m leaving, though,” she says.

She can’t imagine that they’ll be happy about it. But she also can’t imagine it’ll come as much of a surprise. She needs her next thing. And maybe that’s…closure.

“Come on,” she says, motioning toward the exit. “There’s even some people who will be thrilled to see you.”

\---

Nanami sits on the edge of the structure, the camp largely quiet now behind her. She didn’t expect to laugh so much, to enjoy seeing everyone again. When she left, a part of her never wanted to be reminded of the war. What it cost. What they had done to see it through. But seeing Templeton and Yuzu and Chaco and Pete feels…good.

“I never think I thanked you,” Pilika says as she takes a seat next to her.

“You never had any reason to,” Nanami says. “In the end, I couldn’t spare you…any of it.”

Pilika sighs. “Yeah, well, it does mean something that you tried. Thanks.”

“And thank you,” Nanami says.

“What for?”

“You taught me that the ends don’t justify the means,” Nanami says. “You gave me the courage to walk away from the war when I needed to. I thought, at the time and after, that I’d feel guilty about it. About not having done more. But it’s not a decision I regret at all. And…I think I’m the only one of the three of us who can say that. We…sometimes there are things you feel you need to do. And sometimes…you don’t.”

“You’re welcome, then, I guess,” Pilika says.

For a while they don’t talk, just look up at the wide wide moon. Nanami remembers when their journey started. Remembers the prison in Muse. When they were still something of a family. She remembers Riou and Jowy making promises to one another.

“I’m sorry, too,” Nanami says. “For not coming to visit more. I missed you.”

In the darkness Nanami can’t tell if Pilika is crying. She decides it doesn’t matter.

“It’s good to see you again,” Pilika says.

Nanami wants to say more. Wants to promise that this time, Pilika can come with. A grown woman, she can handle whatever danger they get into. They can…be a family again. But she doesn’t say it, doesn’t offer that like a gift that will make everything better. They’ll need to figure out what to do, after…everything. But that can wait. Nanami reaches out and gives Pilika’s hand a squeeze.

And then they’re hugging and Nanami knows that Pilika is crying but so is she. They hold each other and it’s like the years slip from them and they’re crying about the ugly reality of war. About loss and death. Riou and Jowy. About time that can never be retrieved.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Nanami says.

And the moon keeps right on shining.

**Author's Note:**

> This is partly at the request of someone who wanted some Nanami fic (hope it suits, Aidan!). It's also my own attempt to try and think about Pilika and what might have happened to her. I'm a little sad she didn't show back up in S3. I imagine at that age, though, she might still have been waiting for Jowy. And that's a sad situation all around. Now, I'm not sure Pilika will forgive him for being away for so long, just like I'm not sure he still forgives himself for all that he's done. It's messy, and fraught, and so of course it's a great thing to write a fic about. Cheers!


End file.
